Last week’s swimming article unfairly depicts women’s team

Of all the words that I can use in response to the article “Seniors Paddle Past High and Low Tides,” livid is the best. I am livid that the women’s swimming and diving team at this college was presented as such a joke. I hope this letter explains how embarrassed and hurt I am that this article appeared for the entire campus to read.

The article appeared while the women’s and men’s teams were competing (and winning) in both the Empire 8 Conference and the Upper New York State Collegiate Swimming Association. That would not have happened had the team been as dysfunctional as presented. I hope that everyone who read that article realized no one would want their own team to be degraded like that. To add insult to injury, once again the picture that accompanied the article was not captioned correctly, nor were any others this year. That is not me swimming. That is not freestyle. I’m glad I am a senior and won’t be around much longer to see my team get slighted anymore.

The women’s team has won states for four years in a row. Our coach, Paula Miller, won coach of the year four years in a row. Nate Brisley won both men’s and women’s coach of the year. Carly Jones won swimmer of the meet. Jodi Costello broke the three-meter record, set the conference record, and Korie Fackler broke the one-meter record. Kylie Bangs broke the 23-year-old 100 backstroke record.
We swam amazingly and did nothing to deserve that article.